Art Unraveled has been going on for the past week or so and it’s been a great event. This past Saturday the Shopping Extravaganza took place and a wide variety of artists and vendors where there selling everything from handmade journals to stencils. Classes start late on Saturday so everyone has plenty of time to shop and I had just enough time to check everything out before teaching my class, “Dug from the Ruins: A Polymer Clay Art Journal”.

Today, I taught my class titled “Worn by Time: A Coptic Bound Art Journal.” In this class, students use Milk Paint to transform ordinary oak boards into a 3″ x 5″ journal. The morning was spent drilling holes for the binding, building up layers of color using Milk Paint and the distressing the surface to reveal those layers and simulate the look of wear and age. For many, the Coptic Sewing is hard to learn so the rest of the day was reserved for sewing demonstrations and hands on help with the binding.

Students finished their books by setting a small image into a bezel and attaching that to the cover and then installing a simple closure that was fabricated from brass. It was a great group of students and their books turned out exceptionally well. I hope to see them again in the future at other events.

A student distresses the covers of their journal in the “Worn By Time” class.

The Art Unraveled Auction Piece is continuing to take shape. I only have a general idea of what this is going to look like and I’m really just making it up as I go. I began with a the basic structure which I constructed out of ½” plywood scraps I had lying around. I painted the inside of each niche before attaching the front part of the structure. Once that was done, I added some texture to the sides I entertained the ides of texture all around but I’ve left the back unadorned because I think someone might want to mount it on the wall. I created sculptural elements on the front of the piece with epoxy clay and then gave the whole thing a couple of washes to give it some color. Now it’s sitting on my workbench while I ponder where to go next.

I’ve been working on a few projects that fit into the “as time permits” category this week and one of them is the piece in the photograph below. I’ve chosen to show it in its current state and from the back no less as an Art Unraveled teaser. One of the premier activities at Art Unraveled is a live auction; the purpose of the auction is to create a pool of funding that provides scholarships to attend Art Unraveled during the following year. Linda, the evil mastermind behind AU asks instructors to donate pieces to be featured in the auction and frankly most of my stuff is away in shows and galleries so I’ve decided to make a new piece to be auctioned off at AU. This piece is on its way to being a shrine and I’m not willing to say more about it at this point. I will show a completed photo of it sometime in the next two to three weeks once it’s done so stay tuned’ I’m hoping people will like it.